


Growth

by Urza



Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Hurt No Comfort, No Happy Ending Fest, Sorry Not Sorry, heavy in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27909253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urza/pseuds/Urza
Summary: After the events of the satellite, Tatiana finally decides to visit Kliff in his prison cell.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Growth

**Author's Note:**

> So first of all, I made this in one night a few days ago, is very short, but it goes over to how I feel about Kliff and Tatiana's relationship according to the game's canon.  
> I feel like the game could have gone a little more in-depth with them, but not completely change their dynamic, so I wrote this.

She really, **really** didn't want to do this.

Couldn't she just turn around and not waste her time with him? Was this really the way she was going to spend the firsts weeks of the new NSR? Looking at the past and having to go through it again? To walk to the prison cells of Vinyl City's police station, was a lot easier to her than to anyone else. As the highest standing member of NSR, she could quickly get in anywhere.

Her hills resonated with the corridors' silence as she continued to solemnly make her way through. The guard continuously having to check his keys to open the next door and the one after that and so on and so on. Until finally. They made it. It wasn't the best-looking cells, after all, most of Tatiana's reforms to crime handling and even crime itself had decreased. Vinyl City was a city of talent, and therefore the people who made it there usually didn't have time to do any kind of petty vandalisation or chaos. Except of course, Bunk Bed Junction, which their crime of hijacking public concerts and causing public disorder pushed to better reforms to the city's and it's main representative: NSR. For this reason, he was the first person who really felt the wooden chairs and beds of the cells in a long time: Kliff.

His clothes had been compromised the minute he stepped inside the building, hands cuffed and most of his gadgets also taken away from him. He was wearing nothing but a black loose shirt and black trousers, his orange and usually messed up hair was even a greater mess now without the green head accessory hiding his forehead, and his glasses were broken, a mark of the injuries he faced after the last fight.

Tatiana liked to see him like this, she would not say it. . but it was how the man always looked like: broken, empty with nothing but the consequences of his actions and nobody there to talk to him. Tatiana wasn't one who took pride in wishing suffering upon anyone, but to Kliff? She couldn't care less.

Now that she was standing in front of him, he could only look back at her. . their cold stares in an uncomfortable silence.

“ Please leave us. ” She told the guard, who was in doubt, but when his sight checked the handcuffs Kliff had and the cell lock, he just nodded, walking out from the way they both walked in. And so, they would only stare at each other, Kliff beginning to actually notice the new changes Tatiana was showing. She seemed more radiant, more alive and for once, with a different air style.

“ It looks good. . ” Kliff commented, gesturing his own hair for the other to understand. “ . . your hair, I like it. ”

Tatiana didn't respond, her gaze still as cold and empty of any emotions, Kliff looked away, finally sitting on the bed, as he knew that whatever was to come it was bound to do for a long time. “ If you came here to just look at me and laugh, please leave, I already suffered enough embarrassment. ” He says in an almost defeated way.

“ Don't act like a **victim,** Kliff.” Tatiana finally speaks, her tone not being any different from the coldness that she emanated. The CEO would reach for a chair, which just rested a few meters from the wall, and pull it, to have somewhere to sit. “ And no, I did not come here to just see you, thinking about you is enough of a pain. ” With the stare of silence and just the judgement of the other laying heavy on him, he just blurted out a guess as to why her presence.

“ Are you here to apologise? ”

This surprised Tatiana a lot.

“ Apologise for what ? ”

“ For leaving me. ”

Tatiana's eyes grew wide, she would have easily lost her control over the situation, she would have become the very fire impersonated and engulf the entire room in flames of anger. . but as a few sparks managed to escape their way out of the cracks in her face, she managed to take a deep breath.

“ Kliff . . I don't even know **who** you are. ” She really wanted to add ‘the fuck’ in that sentence, but to keep herself calm, it would also need for her to think twice if to insult or not. “ We meet a total of five- six times— ”

“ eight. ” Kliff corrects, Tatiana rolling her eyes.

“ Alright eight, eight times. . we meet, we talk, you get obsessed with me, you follow me around, when I'm disbanding from the Goolings you ‘help me’ by buying me a beer and then ten, ten years later you come back to destroy **EVERYTHING** I worked for. And you . . want me. . to apologise ? ” Tatiana really hoped that this was some kind of joke by the older man, it had to be. Kliff, looks down, laying both his arms on top of both his legs. The steam of the frustration and accumulated anger that the man had caused her over so many years was bottling up, she wanted to shout fire out of her.

“ You are not— ” She continued but, she was interrupted.

“ I'm sorry. ”

The phrase stopped Tatiana in her tracks, she had expected a lot to come from someone like Kliff, she expected lies and insults, she expected anger and idiocy. But she never, ever, expected an apology. The fire started to die down, and with that she found her calmness yet again, her lack of words forcing the man to continue talking.

“ I'm sorry for endangering your life and that of your workers, I'm sorry. . . but other than that, I am not apologising for anything else. ” It was his first and worst apology ever, Tatiana could give him the merit of him recognising his failures, she could forgive him in the basis of him showing regret. However, even if she tried, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not only because it was already too late to receive any apologies but also because of his arrogance to not admit the full length of his wrong doings.

“ You left me, you left everyone . . you were selfish and you truly didn't take any responsibility for the people you affected. ” Kliff was now brave enough to fully look to the CEO, his broken glasses focusing on her. “ Even now you continued to do that, you acted on your selfish desires to keep energy to yourself ! You made your own order and negatively affected the lives of many. ” For once, Kliff was now not speaking about his love for rock or his love for Kul Fyra, but his actual appreciation towards the city he grew up in. Tatiana, could not ignore this and the fact that Kliff was right. “ So don't come to me all mighty thinking that you have not done any mistakes because. Ho-Ho ! You've done plenty ! ”

Tatiana did not speak anymore as Kliff stood up from his position to face head on the CEO. “ And yes. I only was with you a few times ! But in those times, even the day we went to the bar together, I was the only one who truly appreciated you, the one who truly was there to hear your cries and your worries. I was the shoulder your head needed resting on. And you owe me that. ” With his final statement making a direct pointing gesture to the taller woman, Kliff catched his breath as the entire situation was heating the room, he could feel as the woman in front of him was getting ready to fight back, to bark words at him and denial. But, she didn't.

She took a deep breath, taking off her glasses to face him with honesty, Kliff gesture softened and was drawn in shock as Tatiana said:

“ You are right Kliff. ”

Kliff mouth opened just slightly, for so long he waited to hear that. . his aggression died down as he stood still.

“ I did abandon my fans, I did make mistakes and I did leave people behind. ” Memories of the events begin to rush over Tatiana, but as Kliff hopes to see a little of remorse from her face, the stone hearted woman just faced him with the same coldness as the one she came to the building with. “ But I regret nothing of it. ” Kliff eyebrows narrowed, as the woman kept her gaze on him. “ I changed, I improved, I shaped myself into new forms and I became something that I love and feel proud of. ” A smile finally breaks the coldness in her, as her own pride begins to come back to her. “ I am truly, Tatiana Quartz and everyone sees me as such. Which is an accomplishment that I could not have gotten if not from my mistakes and wrong doings. ”

This was not what Kliff expected at all, but he kept listening, even if it hurt.

“ Yes, I . . didn't like leaving behind the people that really cared about me, or having the ignorance to keep forced order, with no happiness, on my people. ” Her smile soon died down, it was not something she could keep for long for the man in front of her to see. “ But if I regret my mistakes forever, and act as if they never happened. . then I deny myself the chance to grow. ” She knew this wasn't fully what the man wanted to hear, so for once she will give him the answer he truly wants. “ And for the woman you helped, the broken and the rotten version of myself . . she needed someone to see her as Tatiana Quartz, to encourage her to grow. . you on the other hand, **just** saw Kul Fyra. ” Her eyes narrowed as the his widened. “ You encouraged me into continue with the Goolings, you wanted me to be Fyra forever, you needed an idol and that's why you always came to me. I needed an escape, I needed an outsider who understood me, but you just kept pushing me back to the place I wanted to be free from. ”

The memories of the events, of the pressure from the band and the city, of the fans and the members, made Tatiana flinch in a short second of pain.

“ You only cared for Kul Fyra, Kliff. ”

The minutes of the visit were running out, and as the ticking of the clock grew louder, they both knew it was time for the actual reason for Tatiana's visit to be revealed. Kliff however, was now looking down, as the words of Tatiana truly made her question his actions, still not showing actual regret to the woman he still thought had abandoned him.

“ I should not have expected any less from a fanboy. ” Tatiana states seriously, even when the word itself causes offence to Kliff because of it's pathetic nature. “ But I was expecting more from an adult so clever as you. ”

Tatiana finally stood up from her sit, leaving a confused yet somewhat flattered Kliff staring at her.

“ You are almost 54, correct? ” She asks fixing her wrinkled clothes.

“ Yes. ”

“ You still have a life ahead of you, even when you wasted most of it in the past. ” Kliff did not know where she was going with this, so he stood a little on the defensive feeling as though Tatiana was playing games of how much she could play with his already destroyed feelings.

“ What are you talking about ? ” A question quickly asked in anger.

“ You can **grow** and be better Kliff. You can learn from this mistake. ” This stopped the aggression in Kliff's mind to increase and to actually drop, his confusion the only thing there. The implication of forgiveness being on the eyes of the CEO but not said yet. “ Mayday was the one who actually told me that. ” Tatiana clarifies, surprising Kliff even more.

“ Mayday ? She. . she did ? ”

“ Yes. She told me that you and her have done similar actions. Even when she didn't put the lives of many in danger and publicly wanted to destroy my life's work. ” Tatiana made clear to repeat that, just to make sure to Kliff that she would never forget that. Kliff on the other hand, was tired of hearing it, he rolled his eyes, already having admitted of his mistake, even if not in a ‘satisfying’ way. “ You and her. . used the name of Kul Fyra to fuel your hate, even when she didn't do it for 10 whole year— ”

“ Alright, can you please go to the point ? ” Tatiana was being very annoying to him, repeating the same thing over and over again. She however liked to do that, to repeat to this man how pathetic his motivations had been and how he was being compared to someone thirty years younger.

“ You deserve to grow like she did. ” Tatiana stated, Kliff again surprised by the new implications of that sentence. “ But not in this city. ”

Tatiana had seen the now almost happiness in the eyes of the older man, so she said the words quickly just to not get his hopes high. He obviously started to step back as the realisation of his new sentence started to sink in. “ You will be exiled, far away. You will never be able to return to Vinyl City to either see me or Bunk Bed Junction or any of my elites. Therefore, you are forgiven to spending years in prison. ”

Kliff's eyes even when still showing the pain of leaving his city behind, were begging to show more light, as the word ‘forgiveness’ was finally said by the woman he so dearly wanted to hear the words from. Their entire conversation had lead to that one question, the little empathy that Tatiana was showing would now pay off from the man who needed ‘that’ answer the most.

“ Do you . . **forgive** me ? ”

Tatiana's stare came back at him, but even when there was a glimpse of empathy and actual understanding of what the man had been feeling all those years, the abandonment and the emptiness. Her answer was clear.

“ **No.** And I don't think I'll ever will. ”

As silence followed, the red haired just finally gave up, his body now fully weighing as he sat on the bed again. His stare again down. Tatiana had showed the most understanding and feelings she could to the man, which even if not very good, were the only things she could actually give to him. No more, no less. They had history, they had a past, but it was just a past of pain and emptiness, she never even got to know Kliff as when they meet the only topic to come into conversation were the Goolings.

She just saw her fan. Not her friend.

And that made her remind herself of something. She reached for one of the pockets on her white jacket, pulling out a case of glasses. Before she came there, she had a talk with Mayday and Zuke, were they actually had the idea of giving the man a last memory of the city, a last piece of the kindness that the new NSR was aiming to have. For that, they gave him that which they theorised he would need the most.

“ As a last gift from Vinyl City. . . and Kul Fyra. ” Stepping forward so she could be in front of the cell bars, her hand just fitting in between them, she handed the glasses over to him. Kliff head rose as the name of Fyra was said, and as he did, he looked straight to the CEO's eyes, noticing the case. Tatiana slowly getting her hand off the inner part of the cell as Kliff took the case into his hands. As he opened it he saw, they were indeed glasses. . very similar to the ones he was using, but this ones were better and perfect for him. Taking off the old pair and tossing it to the bed, he would quickly put the new ones over his eyes. Lookng back at Tatiana, his surroundings weren't shattered anymore and neither was the face of Tatiana, which sadly still was showing a emotionless face.

“ Kliff. . in the tower, before the satellite, you said something that I should have admitted to be right. ” The idea of being told by Tatiana to be right, twice was like a dream come true, but knowing how the conversation had gone, he knew it wasn't going to be something to satisfy him. “ I owe my fans everything. You were the ones who helped me to be who I am today. . so for that, thank you. ”

Out of all the gifts, that sentence, those two words were the ones he wanted to hear the most. Even when they were of generic nature for any celebrity to say, Tatiana's honest voice broke through him and he couldn't help but smile. Tatiana could actually go on to tell him, that she wasn't talking about him specifically, and that he was the worst example of any fan. She could tell him how frustrating it was that because of his actions and toxicity, he couldn't have become the friend he could have been to her. But, the CEO preferred to remain in silence, letting Kliff enjoy the small happiness she gave him. Not really wanting or needing to say anything else, she walked off from the place she stood to the exit door, where the guard was still waiting for her. Not even looking at Kliff, she opened the door.

“ I hope you do change, and that it is for the better. . . Goodbye, Kliff. ” And with that and the sound of the door slamming shut, Kliff was yet again left alone. A smile of satisfaction and peace still on his lips. His eyes going all around the place he was about to leave. .

. . huh, just when he was getting used to it.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, now you know. I don't genuinely hate him 100% but we aren't given any reasons to why actually like him so.. yeah he deserves this ending I think.
> 
> Because here's a take, the biggest take of them all:  
> I liked the game's ending.  
> Like yeah, it was poorly written, but Tatiana saying to him "I owe you nothing" struck so hard with me. I could go on to explain why, but these are the endnotes, not my blog.  
> So yeah, that was actually my favourite part of the game.
> 
> But hey, if you liked Kliff, and you write AUs of him becoming a better person that's great! Because I think as well he can be a better person, so yeah, I don't hate him but I'm pretty sure after the game Tatiana would like to yeet him far-far away.
> 
> Anyways, can you notice I wrote this on my phone?


End file.
